Today, I plan to take you all through the creation and maintaining of a metagame as large as Pokemon's is. To begin, I should explain exactly what makes a metagame.
The term metagame is defined simply as using out-of-game resources and information to influence decisions in-game. This can be applied to card games, video games, or even at times to sports competitions. Normally, the most important outside influence that affects game decisions is an understanding of how your opponent will act with their own knowledge of the game, which allows you to predict their actions and react. Of course, this is easier said than done because any skilled opponent will be attempting to predict your actions as well.
Eventually, the map to just one decision can look awfully similar to this, if you're not careful.
Adding more factors to a metagame creates more complex metagames, and the potential for growth in complexity is nearly limitless as people who are serious about a game will endlessly create more and more strategies within it. For example, let's take a typical character vs. character fighting game. In the beginning a person picks one character and begins to learn how it functions against all other characters in the game. Say this person notices his character has problems with one or two other specific characters, and then more people notice and agree. Before long, the character is labeled as a good character, but not as good as the other two that can beat it. In the metagame, this knowledge is applied when people pick characters to play against each other. But, let's say someone discovers a strategy or exploit within the game that lets this character beat those two characters more easily. The metagame has shifted, adding a layer of complexity: "If I pick character A, and my opponent uses character C or D, I have to use Strategy B, except they'll know it's coming because that's the only strategy that works, so I have to be sneaky about it."
And this is just a fighting game wherein one character fights against another character! In these games, there are typically between 20 and 50 fighters for people to choose from. What about a game where there are literally hundreds? What about Pokemon, where you're using a team of six characters at once, not just one? As you can imagine, the formation of the Pokemon metagame is a ridiculously complex thing, which builds slowly over years, instead of taking just a few months to have it truly figured out. And every new generation adds new fighters to it, which forces gamers to reset the metagame completely and figure out how all the new Pokemon interact with themselves and all the old Pokemon.
What's that you say? Gen 6 is on the way? Oh, Arceus. Get ready to press it again.
After all of these interactions have been figured out, however, something called a tier list can begin forming. Thankfully, this list simplifies everything to a much more manageable degree than, 'How can I possibly counter 400 threats all at once?' How does it manage this simplification, you ask? Allow me to explain.
A tier list can be described as a list sorting Pokemon (or fighters, in other games) into levels, or tiers, of overall power. Tiers are never explicitly put into fighting games, and instead are usually developed by a game's community as they go through the game's characters and their abilities, along with all other deciding in-game factors. Over time, in almost all games, a number of characters come to the forefront that just trump so many others that they have to be called amazing. These are the top tier characters, and they each counter a large percentage of everything else in the game, rivaled mainly by the other top tier characters.
Unless they just beat literally everything else mercilessly. Way to go, Brawl!
How does this apply to Pokemon, you ask? Well, that's easy. Every Pokemon has a move list, six base stats, and a typing that gives them weakness, resistance and STABs (Same Type Attack Bonuses), all determining how they fare in battle. Through repeated and painstaking testing of every Pokemon against every other Pokemon the same patterns I mention above emerge, just on a larger scale than other fighting games that contain significantly less characters. And with that, I will list the tiers that Pokemon fall under, as determined by the popular competitive Pokemon site: Smogon.com. I realize that not everyone agrees with their listings and methods, but I have yet to see a better system, so Smogon will be my default.
Uber (Contains 22 Pokemon): These Pokemon tend to be Legendaries, meaning they have ridiculously high base stats and hugely powered attacks. Pitting them against other Pokemon is somewhat unfair, so they have their own separate section.
Overused/OU (Contains 46 Pokemon): Since Ubers are pretty much separate from the overall metagame, these are the 'top tier' Pokemon. They counter a very large number of Pokemon in battle, and even have the potential, with some smart playing, to play against the Ubers.
Underused/UU (Contains 58 Pokemon): These Pokemon make up the middle tier, being powerful, but having a hard time taking on many of the OU and Uber Pokemon. Smart playing can make them effective against OU Pokemon, and in rare cases, a brilliant strategist may be able to use some of the Pokemon found here to effectively battle Ubers.
Rarelyused/RU (Contains 51 Pokemon): These are low tier Pokemon, and is actually a listing that needed to be added in Generation 5 because of the sheer number of competitors Pokemon has now.
Neverused/NU (Contains 262 Pokemon): This is the bottom tier, and its ridiculously huge number owes to the fact that, while there are a lot of great Pokemon, they are the more uncommon. A game like Pokemon is structured so that the Pokemon with large, great base stats and abilities are less common than the more easily-obtained but less effective Pokemon.
You'll notice that each tier has 'used' in it, aside from Ubers. This is because Smogon ends up listing them by how commonly they're used in competitive play on their servers. This works on the assumption that competitive players use what works in order to win. The more popular something is, the more useful it is in winning. This creates a tier list based on overall use, and it takes quite some time for these statistics to solidify every time more Pokemon are added to the pool.
"But Walnut!" You may be saying after going and looking over the tiers, "My NU Cryogonal could pretty easily outspeed and KO an OU Gliscor with a double-super-effective, STAB Ice Beam!" And you'd be right! A tier list does not tell you who will immediately win in a fight based on their placement. Remember that the list takes in account having full teams, and your opponent would likely know to switch something else into the oncoming Ice Beam from Cryogonal. If, however, you had Cryogonal out as your last Pokemon and your opponent had Gliscor as their last, congratulations! You would likely win, baring some last-minute strategy, like a Focus Sash.
Yes indeed, with the right brilliant strategies, Pokemon lower on the tier list, while harder to use, are perfectly legitimate Pokemon. Except maybe Spinda.
It's a good thing you're cute, because a 60 for every base and very few moves makes you so... So bad. Sorry, Spinda fans!
To demonstrate the legitimacy of low-tier Pokemon when used intelligently, allow me to show you the following video of a friend of mine in a Pokemon battle.
In this video, you will see Etika's team of six relatively underpowered Pokemon that, through intelligent strategy, all of which he narrates himself so I won't bother to repeat it here, manage to defeat an opposing team of MANU's pretty high-powered Pokemon. What we see here is a man who truly understands the advantages and shortcomings of his Pokemon. He single-handedly demonstrates that a tier list doesn't necessarily always have to be followed, and that Pokemon don't always have to adhere to fighting other Pokemon within their individual tiers.
Often times, however, people do build teams around individual tiers, because as you heard Etika say, not doing so is a challenge. In other words, it's tough to do effectively. So, people build specific OU teams, or specific UU teams, and that's where the simplification of the Pokemon metagame lies. Building teams for specific tiers cuts down the need to counter such a huge number of Pokemon with one team of six. Etika has to plan for each and every threat in the metagame, which is over 400 potential Pokemon. A person planning for an OU team, to fight matches primarily in the OU tier, meanwhile has to plan for only a fraction of that: 46 Pokemon.
I can see a day when that number gets much bigger, though.
Debates rage about whether it's right to use Pokemon based on how good they are, via the tier list, or whether it's best to try to win with your favorites. Personally, I believe both are legitimate, and the debates are pointless. In anything competitive, there will be people exploiting the best strategies to win. And at the same time, there's a certain level of fun to be had with using things you enjoy. Personally, I do both - using high-powered Pokemon that I also happen to enjoy, with the occasional less-powerful Pokemon thrown in just because I like it too much to not use it.
As this article comes to a conclusion, I hope you've all gained some understanding and insight about what makes a metagame. Remember, what you've read here can be applied outside of Pokemon, as well, to almost anything competitive. We've seen that metagames are winding, complex things, filled with borderline attempts at psychic powers in an attempt to predict your opponent's next move. We've seen that they're more than just 'what's the best and what's not,' even if they're based in that general thought process. Most importantly, we've seen that they give an entirely new level to gameplay that can be both frustrating to learn and thrilling to finally figure out.
I hope this article has generated some interest in looking into the metagame of whatever you happen to enjoy playing, be it Pokemon or another competitive game. Whether you end up enjoying it or not, I can promise you it will be an interesting experience. Every new metagame I've ever entered has always held surprises for me. So, have fun with your journey, if you're going to start it! You're in for something interesting. And who knows? Maybe it'll bring you to new friends and new rivals. Maybe one day, I'll get to meet you on the field of battle.
See you next time, folks!
~CW
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